CompuServe Messages

There is a dead-easy way to do this with 3DSr2 (and lots of more complex ways to do it in r1). It's a modification of your third method, based on lofter paths with circles being extruded along them. Instead of moving the objects, create the lofted "communication lines" with the new Mapping Coordinates button ON. When asked for repeats, select 1 repeat along the length. This will make the "U" mapping value along the length go from 0 to 1. Then, use an animated opacity map (made in AA or AA Pro) that is simple a black background with a white line growing from left to right, with one pixel per frame of final animation. This flic only has to be one pixel high, and as many pixels wide as you've got total frames of animation. When the animated opacity map is applied to the "communication lines," the lines will appear to grow from one end to the other. This is the same technique that I recently described on the forum for someone who wanted to make text "draw itself". – G